Military helmet adapter



April 8, 1969 s. J. MOLITORIS 3,436,760

I MILITARY HELMET ADAPTER Filed March 25, 1968 Sheet of. 2

INVENTOR STEPHEN J. MOLITORIS ATTORNEYS April 8, 1969 5. J. MOLITORIS MILITARY HELMET ADAPTER Shet Filed March 25. 1968 INVENTOR STEPHEN J. MOLITORIS ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,436,760 MILITARY HELMET ADAPTER Stephen J. Molitoris, Dearborn, Mich., assignor to American Safety Equipment Corporation of Michigan, Southfield, Mich.

Filed Mar. 25, 1968, Ser. No. 715,763 Int. Cl. A42c 3/00 US. Cl. 2-6 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A protective adapter is removably secured to a conventional steel helmet to provide protection against bullets and shrapnel which would otherwise strike the lower side or rear of the wearers head and neck. The adapter is fabricated of a fiber glass material, and is preferably secured by a series of fabric straps.

This invention relates to improved military helmets. Brief description 0 the drawings FIG. 1 is a side elevation of the adapter of this invention, shown secured to a conventional military helmet.

FIG. 2 is a rear view of the helmet and adapter of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary sectional elevation of the rim portion of the helmet, helmet liner and adapter, viewed in the direction of arrows 3--3 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the adapter of this invention.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the underside and interior of the helmet, helmet liner and adapter assembly.

FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view of a helmet and adapter, showing a modified form of adapter securing means.

Detailed description of the invention Referring to FIGS. 1 to 4 of the drawings, there is illustrated a conventional military steel helmet 10 having a front peak 12 seen at the right of FIG. 1. The tactical adapter 14 of this invention is provided with a shoulder 16 which engages and abuts the upper face of the peripheral helmet lip 18. Shoulder 16 of the adapter interconnects the upper and lower adapter faces 20 and 22, respectively.

As can be seen from the drawings, the adapter projects downwardly from the rear half of the helmet, to protect the lower rear portion of the wearers head and neck. The vertical length of the lower adapter face 22 decreases from the side towards the center rear, so that it will not interfere with full upward tilting of the head of the wearer. Similarly the rear lower face is flared outwardly to provide further room for movement.

Adapter 14 is fabricated from molded fiber glass and resin. A construction which has been used very successfully is Rycol Chemical Standard No. 101, a polyester resin; which has an adequate degree of bullet stopping capacity when molded with eight plys of fiber glass to a thickness of about of an inch. Other suitable resins may be employed, the particular formulation not forming a part of this invention.

As is conventional, the steel helmet 10 is worn outside of a plastic helmet liner 24 (see FIGS. 3 and 5), the latter being provided with the usual head suspension assembly 26 comprising a circumferential strap 28 and a series of top straps 30 each of which is looped over a circular dome loop 36 and secured at each end to the interior of the helmet liner by rivets 38.

The adapter 14 is secured to the helmet by a fabric exterior front strap 40, riveted at one end to the adapter at 42 and fastened with a snap 43 to the helmet at the other 3,436,760 Patented Apr. 8, 1969 end, and a series of four fabric interior straps secured to the adapter by rivets 46. Each of these interior straps is provided with a pair of snap fastener elements, so that the inner end of each interior strap can be looped over the helmet liner suspension circumferential band 28 and snapped to itself to complete the assembly.

It will be seen that the combination of the front strap 40 and the four interior straps 44 serve to create a tension which pulls adapter 14 downwardly and inwardly against the helmet lip 18. 'In this manner, the adapter is held firmly, but removably, in place on helmet 10. Additional securing force is achieved by making the plan view distance between the inside front faces of the adapter undersize, so that they must be sprung apart slightly during assembly to the helmet.

The securing straps serve two additional functions. First, the tension in the four interior straps 44 provides a force which pulls steel helmet 10 firmly down upon helmet liner 24, so that they will not become separated when subject to impact or jarring. This is especially desirable, since the helmet chin strap (not illustrated), which would otherwise perform this function, is frequently not used by wearer.

Secondly the straps, being fabric, contribute to the energy-absorbing capacity of the adapter assembly. The loading in tension of these straps under impact causes them to stretch and absorb energy, and further distributes the impact force to helmet liner suspension 26, which in turn spreads the load to a substantial portion of the circumference of the wearers head. Such energy absorption thus combines with the substantial energy absorption of the fiber glass adapter itself to produce a very lightweight but effective protective device.

The provision of a protective attachment such as disclosed above permits the economical selective modification of a conventional military helmet, providing a substantial increase in protection to previously vulnerable areas. This is accomplished without the necessity of scrapping a large investment in existing steel helmets.

Modification A modified form of the invention is illustrated in FIG. 6. The helmet 50 there illustrated is basically identical in shape to the conventional steel helmet as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, being provided with a front peak 52 and a peripheral lip 54. Here, however, the helmet is fabricated of one of the modern bulletproof fiber glass type materials rather than steel. The particular composition and construction of helmet 50 does not form a portion of this invention.

The adapter 56 used in conjunction with helmet 50 is constructed in the same basic manner as adapter 14 of the first embodiment, being provided with a shoulder 58 which interconnects upper and lower faces and which abuts lip 54 of the helmet. The difference lies in the means of securing the adapter to the helmet. The helmet 50 is provided with a series of four or more spaced snap elements 60 which engage cooperating snap elements 62 on the inner face of removable adapter 56. This construction also serves to firmly secure the adapter downwardly and inwardly against the helmet lip 54, without the further provision of elastic straps.

Similarly a stud and nut type of fastener could be employed, if desired, to secure the adapter to either a steel or a plastic helmet.

I now claim:

1. A protective adapter for attachment to a conventional military helmet, wherein the helmet is characterized by an outwardly flared lip around its entire lower rim, the adapter comprising:

a shield of generally horseshoe-shaped configuration in plan view and having a substantially uniform vertical 3 cross-section characterized by a shoulder separating and interconnecting a first substantially vertical upper face portion and a second substantially vertical lower face portion, said lower face portion being displaced outwardly from said upper face portion; said upper face portion being approximately one inch high, said upper face and shoulder being so shaped and dimensioned as to overlap and nest snugly against the outer lower portion and lip, respectively, of the rear half of the helmet; fastener means connected to said adapter for engaging the helmet to draw said adapter downwardly and inwardly against the helmet lip to achieve a secure connection therebetween;

whereby, when assembled to the helmet, said adapter lower wall portion extends downwardly from the helmet rim lip to extend the zone of protection afforded to the wearer.

2. The adapter of claim 1 wherein said fastener means comprise a front exterior strap secured at each end to the front portion of the adapter, and a plurality of spaced interior straps, each secured at one end to the upper inside face of the adapter;

whereby said front exterior strap may be looped over the front portion of a helmet just above the peak, and said interior straps may be passed downwardly under the rims of the helmet and helmet liner and upwardly along the inside face of the helmet liner and looped over the inner suspension assembly so as 4 to pull said adapter shoulder downwardly and inwardly into firm contact with the lip of the helmet.

3. The adapter of claim 1 wherein said fastener means comprises a plurality of spaced snap fastener elements secured to the upper inner face of the adapter, whereby they may engage corresponding snap fastener elements secured to the outer lower portion of the helmet to firmly secure the adapter to the helmet.

4. The adapter of claim 1 which is fabricated of fiber glass.

5. The adapter of claim 1 wherein the center rear portion of said lower wall is shorter and inclined downwardly and outwardly from said shoulder so as not to interfere with full and free movement of the Wearers head.

6. The adapter of claim 1 wherein the fastener means function to absorb energy of an impact striking the adapter.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,861,274 11/ 1958 Stuart et al. 2-6 2,888,681 6/1959 Stuart et al. 2--6 3,042,927 7/1962 Mauro et a1 23 FOREIGN PATENTS 864,232 1/ 1941 France.

84,899 4/ 1920 Switzerland.

JAMES R. BOLER, Primary Examiner. 

